Donald Trump demands the resignation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

News.com.au

2 days ago

US President Donald Trump has demanded that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell 'resign immediately'.
Mr Trump appointed Mr Powell, who leads America's equivalent of our Reserve Bank, during his first term, but has since soured on him. He's repeatedly expressed frustration at the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates.
In remarks at a conference in Portugal this week, Mr Powell suggested Mr Trump's own policies had influenced the Fed's decisions.
'I think that's right,' he said when asked whether the President's tariffs were to blame.
'In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs, and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.'
Mr Trump continues to insist the tariffs are not inflationary.
Having stated yesterday that 'anybody would be better' as Fed Chairman than Mr Powell, now the President has escalated the (mostly one-way) feud further.
Posting on social media, Mr Trump shared an article from Bloomberg, which reported on an accusation that Mr Powell lied to Congress during a Senate committee hearing last week.
Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finanace Agency, called Mr Powell's testimony about expensive renovations to the Fed's headquarters in Washington D.C. 'deceptive'.
'This is nothing short of malfeasance,' said Mr Pulte, adding that Mr Powell should be fired.
'Too Late, should resign immediately!!!' Mr Trump commented while sharing the story.
Earlier in the week, during one of her media briefings, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a note the President had written to Mr Powell.
The message was written on a list of the lowest central bank rates around the world.
'Jerome. You are, as usual, Too Late'. You have cost the US a fortune – and continue to do so – you should lower the rate – by a lot!' Mr Trump had scrawled using his usual Sharpie.
'Hundreds of billions of dollars being lost! No inflation.'
At the aforementioned conference in Portugal, an annual forum hosted by the European Central Bank, Mr Powell said a US rate cut in July was neither 'on or off the table'.
'July will depend on the data. We will go meeting by meeting,' he stressed, adding that the Fed makes its decisions 'in a completely non-political way'.
'We are carefully watching the labour market ... I have a little more than ten months in office. All I want to deliver is an economy with price stability, maximum employment and financial stability. That is what keeps me awake at night. I want to hand over, to my successor, an economy in good shape.
Mr Powell's term ends next year. Clearly, however, Mr Trump wants him gone sooner.
Congress ponders Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'
Meanwhile, tensions are simmering within MrTrump's Republican Party as he lobbies members of Congress to pass his much-hyped, and contentious, 'Big Beautiful Bill'.
The massive piece of budget legislation includes multiple elements of Mr Trump's domestic political agenda, including the extension of tax cuts, funding for immigration enforcement, and cuts to Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance to lower-income Americans.
It has already passed through the Senate, and is now being considered by the House of Representatives. Mr Trump's party controls both chambers.
Yet the legislation's passage is no sure thing. Multiple Republicans have expressed opposition to it, citing forecasts that it will swell America's already considerable national debt by trillions more dollars.
The President, supported by Vice President J.D. Vance, spent a chunk of his day today personally lobbying members of Congress to vote for it.
'He's been working the phones pretty consistently,' an administration official told Politico.
'He is going to get it over the finish line.'
The stakes are high, and so are the tensions, as evidenced by some rather bad-tempered remarks from multiple members of Congress.
Exhibit A: Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden, who represents a district in Wisconsin. He took umbrage at the suggestion, from a reporter, that House Republicans were being 'led by the nose' by Mr Trump.
'The President of the United States didn't give us an assignment,' Mr Van Orden said.
'We're not a bunch of little b**ches around here, OK? I'm a member of Congress. I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites.'
That said, Mr Van Orden's office later issued a statement stressing that 'President Trump is the leader of the GOP', and the Congressman 'looks forward to passing' the bill.
Exhibit B: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a MAGA favourite, who described the efforts to pass the 'Big Beautiful Bill' as a 's***show' and predicted there was 'no way' it would get enough votes.
'It is really a dire situation,' Ms Greene told the podcast War Room, hosted by Mr Trump's former senior White House adviser Steve Bannon.
'We're on a time clock that's been really set on us, so we have a lot of pressure.
'And then also, given the fact that there's 435 members of Congress and it's hard for us to get to an agreement on anything. So this whole thing is – I don't know what to call it. It's a s***show. And I'm sorry for saying that. I know we're not supposed to say that on the air, but that's truly what it is.'
Mr Trump wants the bill to be passed before the symbolic date of America's Independence Day, which falls on Friday.
He will need almost universal support from the Republican caucus, given the Democratic Party's seemingly unshiftable stance.
'This bill is a deal with the devil,' one of the opposition party's loudest voices, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said on the floor of the House.
'It explodes our national debt. It militarises our entire economy. And it strips away health care and basic dignity of the American people. For what? To give Elon Musk a tax break.
'We cannot stand for it, and we will not support it. You should be ashamed.'